Zach Braff's "Wish I Was Here" is a sweet and jokey feature film that is so at home in the punch-line rhythms of TV sitcoms that you may think to yourself, "When's his best friend and former "Scrubs" co-star Donald Faison showing up?"

And then he does.

It probably took a little work to invent a character and place for Faison in this Jewish life dramedy. But it was a safe bet that Braff, who co-wrote and directed his second feature (after 2004's "Garden State") and financed it with the help of legions of fans through Kickstarter, would make that "Scrubs" reunion work.

"Safe bet" is a good way to view this genial, sensitive story of Aidan, a father and failed actor (Braff) whose wife, Sarah (Kate Hudson), supports the family -- something his own father, Gabe (Mandy Patinkin), never lets him forget. Much of what happens here is just R-rated versions of the sorts of life moments and decisions that distinguished "Scrubs."

Gabe's cancer comes back, and thirtysomething Aidan and his family, including his washout brother (Josh Gad), have to wrestle with being faithless Angelenos with no serious grasp of "Why we're here" or "What's it all about?"

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Aidan's kids are in Yeshiva school, where young teen Grace (Joey King of "White House Down" and TV's "Fargo," a marvel) has taken up the faith of her fathers with a vengeance. Her Hebrew is impressive, her devotion extends to her monochromatic wardrobe. Younger brother Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) sleeps through choir, totes a cordless power drill in his backpack and isn't all that bummed when the family suddenly is cut off from the funds that make their expensive, judgmental, all-Jewish school too expensive.

Aidan married a shiksa, so neither he nor Sarah are immersed in Judaism. Their solution, since Aidan's last acting job was in a dandruff commercial, is that he'll homeschool the kids. All he'll need is an elbow-patch corduroy jacket, he thinks. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

Meanwhile, tough-love Gabe is slipping this mortal coil. Aidan can't talk brother Noah into even visiting the old man he hasn't seen in a year, and at every corner, the disapproving rabbis of the Yeshiva (wizened character actor Allan Rich among them) tut-tut Aidan's career and the reversal of roles in their household, where Sarah suffers through a sexist workplace just to keep their cluttered house in their hands.

The parameters of "Wish I Was Here" fit pretty neatly within what could have just been a "Scrubs" reunion -- similar performances, same tone, similar jokes, similar aphorisms.

"An epiphany is when you realize something you really needed to realize."

"The things we left unsaid stay with us forever."

The banter is snappy and quick, as when Gracie's non-Jewish neighborhood crush wonders why she had to drop out of private school.

"But I thought the Jews RAN Hollywood?"

"Me too! Maybe we're in the wrong tribe."

Like "Veronica Mars" (the year's other big fan-funded feature film), "Wish I Was Here" takes the eager-to-please route, from its tone to its fan-friendly pandering. Faison of "Scrubs" plays a sports car salesman that Aidan and the kids hassle, and there's an inane Aidan-as-Skywalker-ish-space-hero fantasy sequence that returns, time and again. We visit Joshua Tree for our "epiphany" and Comic-Con, where the nerdy brother finds himself, and where the soundtrack makes this the second movie of the summer to mockingly use Paul Simon's "Obvious Child." Because at Comic-Con, they're all children. Obviously.

If you liked "Scrubs," and I did, for a few seasons, anyway, you'll be happy Braff got to make his movie and happy that you got to see it. Braff and Hudson play an interesting story arc, and Hudson gives her all in the best role she's had in this millennium. But within minutes of the closing credits, you'll wish Braff had somewhere fresh to go with all those millions his fans donated to him to direct his first feature in a decade.

The soundtrack for Zach Braff's first film, "Garden State," is perhaps even more notable than the indie movie itself. Not only did it put The Shins on the map, but it also brilliantly captured a sense of time and place (suburban America, 1994) in the same way classics like "The Graduate," "Hard Day's Night" and "Shaft" will forever take us back to the '60s and '70s. While the "Wish I Was Here" CD looks to be similarly era-specific, we're in a nostalgic state of mind. Here are five great ones that transport us:

"Purple Rain"

Perhaps the reason this sounds so much like 1984 is because such iconic masterpieces as "Let's Go Crazy" and "When Doves Cry" were omnipresent that year and provided the soundtrack to our lives.

"24 Hour Party People"

The soundtrack to this 2002 British docudrama is a brilliant tour through Manchester music history with tracks by Happy Mondays, New Order and Joy Division.

'Singles"

In 1992, Seattle's grunge scene was exploding. While the lack of a Nirvana song is a glaring omission, this serves as an early career "greatest hits" for everyone from Pearl Jam to Smashing Pumpkins to a newly solo Paul Westerberg.

"8 Mile"

This remarkable 2002 film was Eminem's "Purple Rain," one which catapulted him to even greater stardom with music that takes us to the mean streets of a crumbling Detroit in the early days of the then-new century.

"Almost Famous"

This 2000 memoir of filmmaker Cameron Crowe's days as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone in the '70s as he followed a Led Zepplin-like arena band on tour, falls into the mixtape category -- but what a mixtape it still is!